An Opinion On Sports

Thursday, August 23, 2018

At the Ohio State press conference regarding the status of head football coach Urban Meyer, the head of the investigative team, Mary Jo White, stated that Meyer did not "deliberately lie". That term stood out to me above all the other colossal moments during that fiasco. A lie is the direct opposite of the truth, so if one chooses not to use the truth, isn't the lie automatically deliberate? However, in the end none of that matters in the least. When a coach returns a renowned program back to its glory days of winning football, he has a solid lock on his job. Urban Meyer owns Ohio State University. He holds the keys now. He knows he is untouchable by anyone at the administrative level above him. He doesn't have to ever be concerned by the actions, or lack thereof, of his despicable character. He can "look the other way" as much as he wants to now. His attention only has to be focused on winning football games, because a failure to do that is the ONLY thing that can put his job in jeopardy.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Ronald Acuna, Jr. was hit by the first pitch of Wednesday night's Braves-Marlins game. The pitch was thrown by Miami's Jose Urena, and it was thrown intentionally at Acuna. The 20 year old Brave has been the hottest and most electrifying player in the Major Leagues for the past two weeks. He has led off the past three games with a home run, has homered in five straight games, and has hit eight home runs in the past eight games. Evidently, Urena's way of pitching Acuna differently meant throwing at him with the very first pitch in the bottom half of the first inning. The pitch, which resulted in both benches clearing twice, was the fastest first-pitch of Urena's career. The act of throwing at Acuna with the first pitch was gutless, cheap, bush league, and unprofessional, even in a sport where brushing a hitter back off the plate has always been a part of the game. Going after a player with intent simply because he has been wearing your team's pitching out is not a part of baseball. Here's hoping Major League Baseball comes down heavy and hard on Jose Urena, both in fines and suspended starts.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Georgia is already in the 2017 SEC Championship Game. Their opposition for the title is yet to be determined. It will be, of course, either Alabama or Auburn. The Tide or the Tigers. If you are a UGA fan, who do you want to face on December 2nd? The Dawgs are just coming off of that devastating domination by Auburn last Saturday, and they have Kentucky and Georgia Tech remaining on the 2017 schedule. The two Alabama schools don't meet until November 25th, both having out-of-conference and easy opposition this Saturday. The pros and cons regarding the two possible match-ups are endless. Would Georgia want to face the same team that decimated them only two weeks earlier, or take on a 'Bama squad battling some key injuries and not playing up to Alabama standards at the present time? Some fans believe that Auburn could not play that good twice against the Dawgs, and conversely that Georgia couldn't play that bad again. Not to mention the fact that Auburn would be without that tremendous home field advantage at Jordan-Hare Stadium. There is also the opinion that Alabama's Nick Saban knows Georgia's Kirby Smart far too well after working with him all of those years, which would make it tough on the Dawgs to overcome the Tide. Thus, would Saban always be one step ahead of Smart? However, there is also the feeling that Alabama is the King of the SEC and a team needs to defeat them, not Auburn, to be truly considered the champion (Like Rick Flair said: "To be the man, you gotta beat the man"). After all, Alabama is still Alabama. The prevailing opinion of many Dawg fans is that there is an extreme hatred of Auburn, where there is only a strong dislike of Alabama. Therefore, it would be much more satisfying, not to mention redemptive, to defeat the Tigers when all the marbles are on the table. I, for what it's worth, want to see Georgia play Auburn on a neutral site field. I think the artificial turf at Mercedes Benz Stadium plays into Georgia's strength of team speed. It's really going to be fun seeing Mecole Hardman loose on that surface! If the offensive and defensive lines of the Dawgs can play at least a little better against Auburn a second time around, the result could be different. Also, Auburn coming off a victory in the Iron Bowl, and having already handled us easily, could enter the SEC Championship a little too sure of themselves. Not to mention UGA would have to go into that game as the underdog, and I like the way that would play into the psych of the game. Regardless of which team the Dawgs end up facing, it sure is good to see Georgia back in Atlanta in the Championship game again. It has been far too long since we were there, and here's hoping we become a fixture in this game for years to come.

Friday, October 27, 2017

In spite of an effort from "the powers that be" to have both Georgia and Florida wear their respective home jerseys, Georgia has elected to wear their white jerseys this year in Jacksonville. 2017 is in fact Florida's year to be the home team.The last year Georgia wore white jerseys was 2013. They were the visiting team that year and defeated Florida 23-20, just as they were in 2011 when a Dawg's win in white tops jump-started a three-year win streak for UGA.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

This never gets old, even after all these years! Here's to Larry, but let's don't make it so close this time around! Keep chopping Dawgs! Gators get the ax, down in Jax! Oh yea, good luck to all of you property owners...just sayin'.

A The University of Georgia athletic association includes the 1904 game in the series win-loss record; the University of Florida's athletic association does not. Please see the Series history section above for further explanation.

Georgia pretty much owned the series in the 70s and 80s, while Florida has been the dominant team since 1990. However, Georgia still leads Florida in the long standing rivalry by 7 games. Both teams own 7-game winning streaks against the other.

Okefenokee Oar

The "Georgia side" of the Okefenokee Oar

In 2009, the student governments of the University of Georgia and the University of Florida created the Oar which is presented to the winning university's student body president. No formal post-game presentation is made on the field after the game.

The Oar was carved from a 1,000 year old cypress tree that once grew in the Okefenokee Swamp, which straddles the Georgia-Florida border. The Oar is 10 feet in length, and has the logos of each college on opposite sides.

It goes without saying that the Oar has resided below the Georgia border for the past 3 years. You know, "to the victor belong the spoils", and all that stuff. Now the cypress trophy has a good chance to come back to the University of Georgia campus...and stay there for many consecutive years. Just where it belongs, and then "the universe will be unfolding as it should" (Desiderata).

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

It's Georgia-Florida week so a great flashback of this series would be to recall Bill Stanfill's great game against the Gators in 1966. Stanfill sacked eventual Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier twice, and hammered him after passes often that day in the Dawgs 27-10 victory in Jacksonville. The sophomore from Cairo,Georgia helped the Bulldogs deny Florida their first ever SEC Championship, and that was after the Gators led 10-3 at half. It is this game in particular that many Georgia fans believe led to Spurrier's tremendous hatred of the Bulldogs during his coaching career.

The irony of all of Stanfill's heroics that day was that he was not even expected to play. He suffered a neck injury during practice that week, but still traveled with the team to Jacksonville. The story goes that Coach Vince Dooley and the team doctor paid a visit to his hotel room the night before the game, where the doctor administered a cortisone injection to his neck. Saturday morning the neck was fine, but Spurrier's pains were just about to begin.

In the 1968 Georgia-Florida game Stanfill again had another superlative effort as the Dawgs smashed the Gators 51-0. That Saturday he even finished the game as Georgia's quarterback on the last series of the lopsided victory. Bill Stanfill, always and forever, a Damn Good Dawg!

Monday, October 23, 2017

After attending the GSU/Troy State game this past Saturday, I came away with the following observations: State has done a great job with Turner Field, thus far. There is still much to be done to completely transform this venue into a really top tier football facility. The concourse where everyone enters is a bit drab. It needs GSU football murals and more GSU blue throughout that area. Adding those, as well as a few more touches, would liven up that area and give fans a better "first impression". The end zone seating at the old home plate end of the field should be closed until GSU needs those seats for capacity. The sight lines there are terrible, and bringing the home crowd all behind the home team would increase the noise level for the Panthers, giving them more of a home field advantage and the appearance of a larger crowd. Once you leave the concourse area, the concessions are few and far between, and putting more behind the home crowd would be a big plus. The concourses are big and open which is nice and should afford sufficient space for those additional concessions. The people in charge of game day should visit more venues and adapt other ways to enhance the game day experience at Georgia State Stadium. The scoreboard/video screen is really nice, but one does grow weary of seeing the same spirit videos all game long. I realize this was only the second home game, so I am sure there is much trial and error going on. The future plans for the football and baseball facilities on site sound exciting. I would say GSU is on the right track with still much work to be done. Good luck and go Panthers!

Only in America could a guy like Paul Finebaum make millions of dollars by merely giving his opinion regarding college athletics. He's vain, he's arrogant, he's opinionated, he's pompous, he's haughty, and he's condescending. Did I miss anything? However, because of all of these outstanding traits, he's also very rich. But take a look at those ears! Ears that some elephants only dream of. But I guess if you get stuck in life with those monstrosities, you should at least get to make some big bucks! Talk on Paul, we hear your incurable case of diarrhea of the mouth.

I guess it really is time for Butch Jones to be ousted at Tennessee. Not only has his team failed miserably on the field, but as depicted above, he has apparently lost all control of his players as well. What an image for the University of Tennessee Rashaan Gaulden depicts. Although Gaulden later apologized for his actions, the damage was already done. Stay classy UT!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Jake Olson has been blind since he was 12 years old, but Saturday he opened all of our eyes. In a game between his USC Trojans and Western Michigan, Olson took the field with his special team comrades and long-snapped for the PAT. The snap, as well as the kick, were both successful. Of all the great college football games that were played over the Labor Day weekend, along with all the great individual performances, Jake Olson's college football debut had to be the most inspiring story of all!